The way back to Robert's place was relatively safe. After being fully topped off, Sable and I could run pretty darn fast, and the few people that did discover us were quickly dispatched by myself. I found it a little strange that they didn't increase patrols after the first bunch were killed off, especially since it must have been a few hours since Sable had engaged them. Given how close their base was, I felt that something was definitely off, and I voiced my concern to Sable.
“Huh,” Sable muttered as we ran at full speed, “I didn't think about that. Maybe there's just not enough men around to reinforce this place?”
“I don't think that's the case. I mean, they sure as hell didn't give that impression that they lacked people when we got out of that place, not to mention how damn huge that prison was.”
“Actually, now that you mention it, Frank, there was something bothering me about those guards. You recognize any of those soldiers?”
“Uh, no? I've been in that base for like, 5 minutes before we broke out.”
“True, but I didn't recognize any of them either, and I've never seen that uniform around.”
“So you're thinking that they belong to another organization?”
“Could be, or they're from a different part of the base, and that's just the uniform that they use to patrol the area outside.”
“That still doesn't explain why they wouldn't send more troops here after we did so much damage.” I answered, “Ah well, there's no point wondering about it more. Let's just count our luck and hope that no one else shows up.”
Sable smiled, “Agreed.”
* * *
When we reached Robert's place, I finally understood exactly why the patrols in town were so lax. The main forces were at work bombarding Robert's mansion. I'm quite amazed that Robert was even able to maintain his ground, given that there must have been at least a few dozen fully armed combat personal laying waste to his beautiful manor. I saw a few vampires defend the base with the best of their ability, but this was pretty much a one sided slaughter.
Sable looked on in horror, and I could feel her body tense up as she was about to go rush in to help out. Before she could get up, I grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Frank, we can't just leave them!” She half-screamed.
“And if you go rushing in it's the same as suicide.”
She stopped to think about the situation, and frowned, “Then what are we supposed to do? We can't just leave them!”
I surveyed the scene before me again, and realized that Robert must have had a plan in case something like this happened. And plus, the amount of people defending the ground was definitely less than the amount of people that I saw actually inside of the place. The only logical guess is that a lot of people had already escaped... or died. I was hoping that it was the former.
“Look, Sable.” I said firmly, “There's no way Robert wouldn't have thought of something to deal with this, not after how much you hyped him up to be this awesome hero, right?”
“But...”
I cut her off and continued, “And look, the human forces aren't stupid, so why are they attacking the place in the middle of the night, when everyone's still active?”
“Um...”
“Because they're probably forced to act right now.” I answered for her, “Which means that Robert's done something to make them attack immediately. So don't worry, your friends are safe.”
“Thanks, Frank.” She said sincerely, “That was probably stupid of me.”
“Anyway, I'm going to check out the situation.”
“Let me go with you!”
“You know that you can't, Sable. I can't use my ability on more than one person feasibly, and without it, no one will get inside Robert's place safely.”
Sable pleaded, “I know! But I can't just watch you go in there!”
“Don't worry,” I answered, hoping that my voice sounded firm, “I'll be going in and out. No one'll see me.”
“Frank...”
I knew that trying to talk to Sable any longer wouldn't get her to calm down, and I knew that nothing that I would do would make her less inclined to stop me. So instead, I bent over, and gave her a deep kiss. She kissed me back, and after we broke off our embrace, she started to say something to me, but before I could hear her, I ported away.
Once I was free from Sable, I realized that I had no idea how I was actually going to get into manor. Like I've said before; without a good, clear line of sight into the house, I won't be able to port in, and given the confusion of the ensuing battle, I doubt that I can just calmly walk inside either. Still, it seems that no one had noticed me yet, so I had the element of surprise.
I circled around the place a few times, trying to find a point where I could casually sneak by. Unfortunately, life wasn't as easy as I wanted it to be. I found that the entire mansion was surrounded by people, and the ones who were not actively shooting were standing on guard. It looks like I have to do this the risky way. I took a deep breath, and ported right in the middle of the thinnest bunch of soldiers.
I didn't give anyone time to react, because the second I landed, I took the nearest guard and threw him towards the others. Before his buddies had the opportunity to open fire, I was already out of there. I hoped that the confusion and the cover of night helped hide where I was, because although teleporting was fast, I still couldn't go very far. I landed a few hundred feet away from where the other guards were, and thankfully I wasn't shot at. These guys are better trained than that, I guess.
From my current location, I made a few more small ports until I found myself sticking to the side of Robert's roof. I thought that since I couldn't stroll through the front door without being attacked by everyone around, I could just make my own entrance from above. I gathered the new strength that I had, and punched down on the roof. I hope Robert doesn't mind having a huge hole through his ceiling.
To my surprise, the roof didn't break like I had hoped it did. In fact, the only thing that my punch did was make an ungodly amount of noise. It wasn't that I lacked the strength, but rather, Robert's roof seems to be reinforced with steel. Wonderful. Before I could even think about my next plans, I felt a dull pain enter my shoulder, and on instinct, I ported away from my location.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Porting on instinct was never as accurate as porting normally, and I found myself appearing a few feet off the ground as a result. I crashed onto the grass, cursed under my breath. I wanted to orient myself, but I realized that I was in the middle of four heavily armed men. I cursed out loud this time, and struck at the nearest person. Unfortunately, unlike the first bunch that I attack, these guys had more than enough time to prepare themselves for my assault. The man I tried to attack easily dodged my punch, even though I was moving faster than their reaction speed should have allowed them to react.
I felt a rush of air to my side, and without thinking, I made a series of small ports to dodge whatever it was that the other people did. It was a good thing that that's what I did, because what I dodged was a giant fireball.
Wait, a fireball? How could these guys shoot one of those out? They didn't have anything like a flame-thrower around. My question was quickly answered, because I saw one of the armoured men point their fists at me, and another massive ball of fire was shot in my direction, followed by automatic gun fire by the guys around him. Ah crap!
I made several more ports so that I was as far away as possible from where I was before. Fuck! Even though I did my best to avoid their fire, I realized that these guys could aim, and if it wasn't because of my porting away, I would have certainly died. My jacket was also scorched from the residual heat. Thankfully I was faster than the four guys chasing after me, and I was able to escape without difficulty.
I looked at the wound on my side, and saw that the bullet only grazed my skin. There was fresh blood leaking out, but otherwise, the injury wasn't too bad. The burnt skin on my arm, however, was another story. It felt as if I had placed my arm on a stove, and just moving around made my skin throb in pain. After making sure that no one around knew of my location, I sighed and started to make my way back to where Sable was. I guess trying to get in the standard way wasn't going to cut it.
When Sable saw me approaching, she looked like she was about to strangled me alive. However, when she noticed that I was hurt, she just sighed, and told me how idiotic I was. I agreed for once.
“Damn it Frank!” Sable shouted for the fifth time that minute, “This is why you should listen to what I say! I swear I am not letting you go kill yourself any more!”
“I know, I know.”
“And what the hell even happened?”
“Some asshole threw a fireball at me.” I muttered in response, rubbing my injured arm.
Sable shook her head, and forced me to stop rubbing the wound. She ripped some fabric off her shirt, and wrapped it on my arm, where the burn marks were. I griminess at the pain, but otherwise didn't say a word.”
“What? Like a flame-thrower or something?” She said when she was done turning my arm into a mummy.
“No, he threw a fireball out of his hand. Like, what I can do, but with fire.”
Sable frowned, and said, “But there shouldn't be any ability users in the compound...”
“Are you sure?”
“100%” She answered, “I mean, everyone knows that there's only one human organization that has people like that.”
I finally realized what was happening, and muttered under my breath, “SIDNA...”
Sable heard me, and said, “Yeah, it has to be those guys! Damn it, why are they here at a time like this?”
I think I know why they're here. After all, I probably lead them to this location, but I kept that information to myself. I should have known that something like this would happen! But why are they attacking Robert and his people? Shouldn't they be keeping the peace in the supernatural community instead of committing mindless slaughter?
Sable broke my train of thought, and said “Um, Frank. Did you manage to get inside?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“I don't blame you, with those guys here and all. Ugh! Why are SIDNA in a backwater place like this! What should we do now then? I mean, we can't just leave everyone there, can we?”
I thought for a while, and said, “Did you try calling them?”
“I don't have a phone with me, and I don't know anyone's phone number even if I did.”
“Same here.”
“So if we can't contact them, then we fight our way in. Maybe there's a spot where they're not as heavily guarded or something...”
I shook my head, and said, “That's impossible, Sable.”
“Why?”
“I've scouted the area, there's no way the two of us can make it inside without being killed. There's too many guards around.”
Sable grunted, and said, “So we just wait?”
“There's no other choice. Robert said that we were going to raid that human compound soon, so we can wait around there until dawn, and if we don't find them near there, we can come back here. I'm sure Robert will find a way to find us by then, and if things don't get any better by the second day...”
“Then we go in and do something about it.” Sable finished.
“Right.”
“Ok, let's get out of here, Frank.” She continued, “I can't stand this place any more.”
* * *
We made our way towards the compound where I first met Sable, and although there were a few guards stationed at the entrance – they got a new door apparently – it was relatively safe. The guards stationed at the entrance looked nervous and unease, which made sense given all the chaos that has happened lately.
Sable turned around when she saw the guards and said, “I knew it! Their uniforms are different, so those other guys had to be from SIDNA.”
I nodded in agreement, and said, “Any sign of Robert and the gang?”
“Nothing so far... Do we just wait it out?”
“I guess so...”